Wild boar to blame for only 1% of outbreaks, Chinese learn PARIS, France––Donald Trump is not the only world leader who has yet to learn that walls don’t work––not if the goal is really to keep a foreign threat out, as opposed to presenting the appearance to a political base of doing something drastic […]
Japan hands whales a Christmas gift camouflaged as coal
Withdrawal from IWC covers for decision to halt Antarctic whaling TOKYO––Handing whales a Christmas Day gift camouflaged as coal, Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga on December 25, 2018 confirmed months of speculation and decades of threats that Japan would withdraw from membership in the International Whaling Commission, which has maintained a global moratorium on […]
The gift of reindeer dwarfs the value of Christmas
Reindeer stand between us & the next Great Flood Admit it: you did not think about reindeer even once between the last Christmas season and this one. Even when you last did think of reindeer, you thought about them in association with Santa Claus. You probably never thought of reindeer as defenders of the Far […]
Drone video moves Russia to halt orca & beluga captures
Drone found 90 belugas & 13 orcas allegedly held pending sale to China VLADIVOSTOK, Russia––Responding to international outrage over drone video showing 90 belugas and 13 orcas in small holding pens in Srednaya Bay near Nakhodka, just north of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, the Russian government in 2019 will prohibit whale captures, reports the […]
Revenge-seeking Icelandic “Ahab” denies killing the great blue whale
“Blood feud” with anti-whalers began when Sea Shepherds sank two of his ships in 1986 REYKJAVIK, Iceland––Kristján Loftsson, the “Captain Ahab” of the North Atlantic, has furiously denied that the 22nd of at least 27 whales killed by his ships in June and July 2018 was the first endangered blue whale harpooned by whalers since 1978, […]
Drove out the snakes? What did St. Patrick do with the Irish wolves?
He made friends with them! DUBLIN, TEL AVIV, ROME––As of St. Patrick’s Day 2018, there are still no wild snakes in Ireland, more than 1,660 years after the patron saint of Ireland allegedly drove them all out. Paleontologists say there were never any wild snakes in Ireland in the first place. But there were […]
A whale for the saving in Nova Scotia––and what the rescue means
More than 100 Atlantic Canadians turn out to help in sub-zero cold HALIFAX, Nova Scotia––Farley Mowat, whose 1972 book A Whale for the Killing helped to transform human attitudes toward whales worldwide, would have been gratified by the scene on January 1, 2018 at Rainbow Haven Beach, just east of Halifax, Nova Scotia. On […]
Why mink releases don’t stop fur farm cruelty
Few industries are more cruel than the fur trade, but some anti-fur tactics take matters from bad to worse OSLO, Norway; SEATTLE, Washington––The Norwegian Court of Appeals on October 18, 2017 ordered four members of the anti-fur organization Nettverk for Dyrs Frihet (Network for Animal Freedom) to pay damages amounting to 21,000 euro, plus […]
Stink over conditions at skunk & ferret “fur farm”
SAEN seeks Animal Welfare Act charges against “fur farm” that appears to breed animals mostly for laboratories & the pet trade NEW SHARON, Iowa––If the 85-year-old Ruby Fur Farm was just a fur farm, producing mink or fox pelts for the garment industry, it would not be subject to unannounced visits from the USDA […]
“Salmon farming is an environmental disaster”
by John F. Robins, Animal Concern Scotland About thirty years ago an Animal Concern Director and I attended one of the first annual conferences of the Scottish fish farming industry. It was held in a wee hall in Oban and there were perhaps a hundred people attending. A student from University of Stirling gave a […]